Rich if you aren't on facebook, you can't really know what it is like.. It is exactly the same as posting on the forums if you set your privacy setting correctly.. I post with all my friends at WISH TV8 where I retired from, my lighthouse friends, and my family on facebook.. My former work friends and family could have cared less about the Forums so facebook is a much better way for me to communicate with all of my friends not just one group of them..
As far as getting personal in facebook you just send a private message to that friend and all of your messages with that friend are all there in a running dialog not separate emails you have to sort or go find.

You really can't know about something until you try it, if then you don't like it you can just not use it..